Day 7, Thursday, April 7, 2016: A day in Cremona and then travel to Milan for our final city in Italy.

We started our day with a guided walking tour of Cremona. Cremona is a northern Italian city with a long rich history since 400 BC that has been occupied, destroyed (Natural or War), and been rebuilt over the years but rich in Romanesque-Gothic art. The tour began outside a clothing  store where a window beneath our feet to view a lower level revealing the original Roman Era streets, shows how the city has been rebuilt on the rubble.

The tour took us to the Piazza del Comune where Duomo di Cremona, Cattedrale di Santa Maria Assent is. In the Piazza we are able to see how the Church and the local government occupy the Piazza this has had much influence on the city. Streets from the Piazza we able to see one of the many store fronts of master local violin makers.

We able to enter Cattedrale di Santa Maria Assent and get a small tour of the Frescoes on the walls. The cathedral is home some of the oldest frescoes, from the late 14th and 15th century, portraying the Life of Mary and Jesus.

Our guided tour ended at the Stradivari Museo del Violino. Here we able to see many priceless Stradivari instruments on display, learn the history of the instruments, process/tools into making the instruments, the important elements of the instruments, and much much more.

After lunch on our own, we made our way to Milan for late afternoon arrival. We had free time to take on some of the incredible shopping of Milan before dinner at Restaurant Scorpion. Dinner this night also included a Birthday Celebration for Alexis.

Note: Pictures and details of the trip will be posted over the next several days in chronological order of the trip.

More pictures of Day1-7 are on our Flickr Italy Group Page.